LIME GREEN, PURPLE & BLUE~ MY FUNKY FAUVE FOLIAGE GARDEN

When I have extra plants I usually can't stand to throw them away. Instead I put them together and let them grow. This makes for some very unusual combinations. I call it the Funky Fauve Foliage Collection. 

The Fauve painters wanted everything bright and colorful. 

This gave me the idea for Fauve Foliage.

Is that a blue bottle I see?

Yes, there they are. They hold the lime green pothos ivy.

Forget spring water, here's a drink made for a true gardener! Cheers! :0)

(No I didn't drink the water...I'm not THAT crazy)

The line up: Variegated Chlorophytum (spider plant), 

purple Tradescantia, 

lime green Pothos,

 and the colorful designs of Peacock gingers (Kaempferia masonii).

 Add to that a row of blue bottles and you're on your way to a tropical foliage fantasia!

(or getting kicked out of your local garden club). :0)

Some of the various Peacock gingers I grow including K. pulchra 'Bill Lee'.

I purchased this Persian Shield on sale for a dollar. It's the most colorful member of the Fauve garden.

I still can't believe it's real, but it is.

Along with some more of the lime green Pothos, the corner has a rare member of the ginger family, a Boesenbergia rotunda. There are some native Maidenhair ferns peeking in to see what's going on.

Variegated Arrowroot (Syngonium podophyllum 'French Marble') brightens up the deep purples with its colorful splotches. The variegated spider plants add a focal point.

Hope I've given you some ideas to spice up the colors in your garden. Never in a million years would I think that blue bottles and purple foliage would actually go together.

Of course, if a true landscape architect were to visit my blog, I'd probably be given a ticket for illegal use of foliage!

"Houses at Chatou"

That's it for today. Go plant something crazy together!

David/:0)

JUNE FOLIAGE FOLLOW-UP: RAMBLING AROUND TO FIND SURVIVORS

During this prolonged drought, I water daily for the wildlife, the birds that visit to have drink, and for the plants that provide shelter and food.
Here are some plants adapted to drought, heat, and humidity as long as you give them a sprinkle or two of water. To see other serious foliage that will knock your socks off, visit our host, Pam, at http://www.penick.net/digging .

                              Kaempferia pulchra 'Alva' named by John Banta in Alva, Florida

Kaempferia elegans aka Kaempferia laotica

Kaempferia pulchra 'Chocolate'

Kaempferia pulchra 'Ben Lee' from Mercer arboretum

Kaempferia pulchra 'Silverspot'

A colony of Kaempferia masonii in bloom

Neoregelias seem content with daily temperatures hovering around 100 degrees. Keep them in dappled shade.

This is Neoregelia 'Happy Thoughts'

My squid agave (Agave bracteosa)  has finally started to look like its namesake.

This is part of my Agave collection.

Thanks for stopping by Tropical Texana.

David/ :-)

GBBD: Welcome to AUGUST BLOOM DAY! :-)

No rain, endless heat, high humidity, and lots of shade. Can anything still be blooming? Well, yes!
Welcome to our shady tropical garden in Houston, Texas.  Anything blooming at this point gets the thumbs up to stay around in future years.

These beautiful peacock gingers bloom all summer in dense shade (Kaempferia pulchra)

Their foliage makes them twice as nice.

In the front yard, Blue Daze (Evolvulus) has bloomed all summer long. It has the unenviable spot right next to the road. (Think dogs walking by..okay?)

The Cleomes looked better earlier in the summer, but still manage to bloom early in the morning.

My favorite drought tolerant plant so far is the small mounding Black Foot Daisy (Melampodium leucanthum). This is first time I've tried this plant. I put it in between Agaves for contrasting foliage.

The bright colored Four O'clocks are blooming now. Almost everything else is conserving energy to survive the dry spell.

I thought Ruellias only came in shades of purple. This is my first red Ruellia and it is taking the heat and still blooming. It's a native of South America and should be hardy here in zone 9B. You grow them from stem cuttings since they are in the Acanthus family. I'm growing to love the Acanthus family.

Do you see the camouflaged insect on this coreopsis? I wish I knew the name.

These zinnias totally surprise me. No powdery mildew this year.

Zinnias are native to Mexico and seem to love heat.

I showed the White Orchid tree last month and some are still blooming.

By the way, are you keeping track of all the colors so far? What am I missing?

 Finally, not all the colors in our August garden are from flowers. Here's a glimpse of our bromeliad collection. The brown spots are a reminder of the hard freeze we had in January.

Well, that's it from the hardest gardening month at Tropical Texana.

Those northern gardens are probably jam packed with gorgeous flowers!

Please visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens and see her wonderful flowers. She thought up the idea and has a list of over a hundred gardens that participate.

She'd love to have you drop by.

http://www.maydreamsgardens.blogspot.com/